2
$\begingroup$

To handle the use-case of someone working in an older ecosystem, could we add tag pkcs7 as an alias to cms?

There are currently 37 questions that mention PKCS#7 while not being tagged as CMS.

While some of these questions only mention PKCS#7 incidentally (99835) or by way of padding (84335), many other results are essentially about PKCS#7/CMS (76038; 29470), and might have been tagged correctly in the first place had this alias existed.

Upon closer inspection, I see that around half of the questions are about PKCS#7 padding [EDIT: this is incorrect; the sample was highly biased -- see my answer for follow-up data and an alternative suggestion] — if this request is implemented, it might be good to also set a shortdescription:

Use this tag for IETF RFC 2315/5652 formatted messages. Do not use it for PKCS#7 padding in other contexts; use [[padding]] for that instead.

$\endgroup$
3
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Note that currently, and possibly incorrectly, the pkcs7 tag is a synonym for padding. When a synonym is created then previously created questions will still indicate the older tag though. $\endgroup$
    – Maarten Bodewes Mod
    Commented May 31, 2022 at 12:29
  • $\begingroup$ @MaartenBodewes I see. Perhaps the optimal solution (to the issue of PKCS#7-questions-lacking-cms-tag) without interfering with the very real pipeline of users being appropriately redirected to "padding" would be to mark the pkcs7 tag as "do not use" and replace its description with a message directing the users to use either "padding" or "cms" as appropriate? $\endgroup$
    – JamesTheAwesomeDude
    Commented May 31, 2022 at 19:12
  • $\begingroup$ Hmm, in light of the data, perhaps this was a "solution" looking for a problem... 8 questions over 10 years is no plague $\endgroup$
    – JamesTheAwesomeDude
    Commented May 31, 2022 at 20:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1
$\begingroup$

It's not actually "around half" -- sorting the questions by "Activity" yielded a very biased sample! Digging deeper:

Of the 70 questions mentioning "pkcs7" or "PKCS#7" but not tagged as cms:

  • 29 only mentioned PKCS#7 incidentally (padding or format — in any case, not a core topic to the question)
  • 33 had PKCS#7 padding as a core topic; they either were tagged or should have been tagged as padding
  • just 8 should have been tagged cms but weren't (including, embarrassingly, one of my own questions… I'll fix that)

So I would actually recommend against the suggestion of establishing a pkcs7->cms alias.

The status quo is seemingly fine; I would recommend, however, possibly repurposing the pkcs7 tag from an alias into a retired tag with description "DO NOT USE; use 'padding' for PKCS#7 padding or 'cms' for the PKCS#7/CMS message format"

Appendix: data

Question,Topic
1486,padding
3205,padding
3581,incidental
6399,padding
6401,padding
6482,padding
8298,padding
8795,incidental
9043,padding
9501,incidental
9174,incidental
9276,incidental
9877,incidental
10269,padding
11272,padding
13016,incidental
15058,padding
15078,incidental
15496,incidental
20716,incidental
22520,incidental
25434,padding
25586,incidental
29470,cms
29506,incidental
31372,padding
31436,padding
32888,padding
33444,padding
33934,padding
34871,incidental
35545,padding
39697,incidental
40800,padding
42925,padding
51393,incidental
54017,padding
57959,padding
60013,cms
61489,padding
62640,incidental
62379,padding
63920,incidental
68561,incidental
70555,padding
72231,incidental
73193,incidental
74713,padding
76038,cms
76247,incidental
77531,padding
78086,incidental
80623,padding
80625,incidental
81994,padding
84341,incidental
84393,padding
84239,incidental
84335,padding
85912,cms
87009,cms
87071,padding
88010,cms
93393,cms
93426,cms
95061,incidental
98493,padding
98741,padding
98917,incidental
99835,incidental
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Would it be possible to programmatically retag those 8 questions without spamming the homepage by bumping them all? $\endgroup$
    – JamesTheAwesomeDude
    Commented Jun 1, 2022 at 17:46

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .